Would you like to hear a story?

[Trae 1]

This is my story.
I come from a long line of Bards.
You know what a bard is don't you? They used to travel around telling stories ,moving on before their welcome was worn, collecting stories as they went , their life being full of adventures and happenings and magic.
So I've got a story for you if you'd like to hear it and have the time to listen.

It's about a group of beings that love to fly.They live on the immense burnt out remains of a mega-star, a cinder block, that rotates wildly in the fierce gravitational maelstrom of a multi-star system in the centre of a very large galaxy.
This cinder block is huge beyond belief with cracks and fissures large enough to swallow ordinary planets and possessing atmospheric winds and vortexes which allow the beings to fly on the updrafts and currents that exist all over the cinder block.

The beings are playful and occupy their time doing whatever they like. The characters we're interested in just love to fly around on the challenging aerial conditions. They have made one of the wildest places on the cinder block their home as that is where the best and most varied flying can be done. This place is frequented by others like themselves who also love to fly and zoom around in the magnificent currents which allow travel all over and through the cinder block (CB.).

Four of the beings in particular are very adept at flying and have mastered the currents to be amongst the best flyers on the block. Their home is located at the peak of and extreme jutting spire like cliff face. To get there you have to be able to fly very well. This has made them elitist and their friends are similarly very good flyers.
They zoom around and travel the CB looking for new challenges to enhance their abilities and allow their continued pursuit of flying excellence. They have the ability to create whatever they perceive by harnessing the radioactive soup and forming things from the bountiful materials and elements that exist on the CB.

Being so near the centre of the galaxy they are continually bathed in a strong bright light and powerful radiation..They are immortal and have no concept of death as we know it only developement and improvement and enhancement of themselves and their flying suits, which appear to be part of their bodies. They do not sleep ,eat or drink relying on the radiation all around for sustenance and growth.

They have a particular fondness of gadgets especially anything which will enhance their flying abilities . They constantly seek to improve their flying suits and happily and freely borrow each others ideas to incorporate into themselves. If they crash they can easily and quickly remanufacture the broken bits from the materials close at hand. And crash they sometimes do ,especially if trying something new.

There are quite a large number of factions living on the CB.all in seeming harmony.- the sheer size of the place gives them all a lot of room to move. Some congregate in cities and places within the CB near internal through holes and fissures, which allow easy travel or spectacular sights. There are fliers, drivers, machine people , inventors,gadget fraks, crystal miners and collectors, social planners, environment planners---basically the whole gamut of sentient consciousness . If you can think of it , it probably exists somewhere on the CB.
The CB is sooo huge it appears uninhabited but on it lives a large collection of all suitably advanced souls who have found their way there and settled due to its immense resources..Many areas are just too wild to be used much. It is these areas our friends aredrawn to in search of new flying challenges.

Due to their elitism the fliers are a fair bit separate from the run of the mill beings. A certain frustrated genius ripples through their consciousness as they overcome challenge after challenge in their flying adventures. This frustration leads them to visit an old friend and mentor who no longer flies much but who occupies time by studying the different things present on the CB.

This friend recommends they visit another being also solely occupied with flight. They have heard rumours of this being but have never met. The fliers travel to the beings lair , which is located at the end of an immense canyon only accessible by flight.. They experience difficulty in the approach to this place but manage to arrive mostly intact but a little the worse for wear.
Upon arrival they are warmly welcomed and shown around the many and varied flying related inventions that this being has created and collected. Several inventions capture their imagination , in particular a craft which appears to sparkle and shimmer as if it is only half real.

They are shown its inner workings and given a demo of its abilities, During this flight they are amazed that the craft can easily do what they found so difficult. The inventor then takes them on a flight right through the centre of the CB. a task they had been barely able to perceive in their now seemingly limited flying suits.
The inventor then takes them to their home peak , which from the splendour of this craft now appears small and childish. the inventor and his craft winkle out leaving the fliers alone to descend to their home even more frustrated than they were before, frustrated at the ease and speed with which this being had performed their most difficult tasks.

Intrigued and a little angered the group gathers other intersted fliers from the playground peak and set off across the CB to revisit the inventor--no small feat.
As they finally approach along the ginormous canyon they are observed by the inventor who remains hidden from the group. They enter the lair and after some running repairs from their rough landings bustle along amongst the inventions until they find the machine which so easily made them feel childish and inept. After picking up a couple of smallish inventions the group take the machine and zoom off back out through the canyon past the still hidden inventor.

The inventor then unhurriedly re-enters its domain and immediateluy notices the missing gadgets. an unhurried smile crosses the inventors face as he muses a little for a short time and then unaffected continues on dabbling with his other inventions.

The group are having a great time zipping around but as yet are not sure how to make the craft vanish and reappear as the inventor had done. In their efforts one of them pushes the controls past maximum causing the familiar surroundings of the CB and iyts megastars to disappear. The controls get stuck and appear broken and ineffective as the group attempts to control the machine. Then they wink back into a reality that none of them recognise.

It is very dark but bright little stars shine in the distance. They realise they are far from their CB home and its bright intensity. The machine is not working properly and neither are their familiar gadgets., which rely on the strong radiation that was part of their life on the CB.

Then they realise they are moving...falling..slowly rotating ..beneath the craft a star comes into view. as the craft slowly rotates out of their control they realise they are a long way out in an unfamiliar and sparse galaxy, not like their powerfully intense galactic home.

They are obviously caught in the gravitational pull of the moderately sized star, which appears closer by the moment. as they gather momentum they realise they are headed for the star and as they begin to whip past outer planets in this bleak solar system some of them decide to jump from the machine and use what little residual power they have in their suits to approach their planets of choice.

The sudden desperation of their position is all too apparent. Colourful sparkles attract their attention and several say hurried good-byes as the depart for their chosen planets.
Our group of four are amongst the last to leave as they make decisions they really don't want to make. a multi-coloured planet closer to the star attracts a couple more--- then our group jumps for the blue white dot with its sparkling attractiveness.
They leave the machine to careen towards the star with the remaining fliers fate unknown. The group settles down to land but it's a one-way ticket ,as they haven't the energy required to fly against the gravitational pull of these planets.
The dirty moisture laden atmospheric soup they land in holds little awe for them in comparison to the splendour of their recently departed home.
Shocked and stunned by the suddenness of their arrival in this new place the groups predicament fully hits home as they watch the star set in silence on their new abode. They remain silent as they are bathed in something previously unknown---------darkness.

I've been doing my bit . Now its your turn to expand our limited horizons. We've managed to collect the few from Venus even though those on Mars are proving troublesome and unco-operative. Those further out have so far failed in their attempts to communicate with the CB but of course are still trying. The rings of Saturn are simply not big enough to do what we want. Here on Earth our efforts to develop the necessary space technologies to travel keep stumbling on incomplete and imperfect science. We have tried many technologies with many different civilisations and creatures but it seems that our efforts are lacking crucuial rememberances. If only we had paid more attention when that dastardly inventor had shown us the inner workings of his infernal randomising machine.

These humans with their chimp brains are limited in what they can achieve and the more they reproduce the more diluted we become and the less influence we exert over them....
At some stage we will have to repurify ourselves and just depart this place. We can now travel outside this stars pull but where do we go? We have found no sign of similar life yet our spirits still yearn for more and ache to return to our beloved CB.
That mad inventor made sure it would take us a long time to figure this one out but we have come a long way. We simply have to work together. Perhaps those in the sun do hold the answer because out here things happen way too slowly.

We are still stuck but there's one thing I am very sure of. When we return there is one being I am going to be very intersted in meeting again. I know it'll be waiting for us. Now I understand its secret smile.
I have a secret of my own. ..you see the cruel inventor operator never tested his own trap. We have learnt things long forgotton on the CB. We have continued to grow without harming others like us.

My dreams take me to the place where our wings sparkle with the light of many galaxies where our spirit is free to fly and laugh at the immensity of the challenge we have been given. It is here we have made new friends infinitly more powerful than those responsible for our imprisonment. These angels felt the depth of our anguish from the void they occupy.

Like I said I come from a long line of birds..

[Gravitymaster 0]

C+

[Trae 1]

C+......Thank you

[airdweller 0]

Nice pictures, but I wasn't able to click on any of them to hear a story.

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"From the mightiest pharaoh to the lowliest peasant,
who doesn't enjoy a good sit?" C. Montgomery Burns

[Trae 1]

Pardon the misinformation.

thanks for the clicking on pictures for sound idea.

Practice for next time.
Would you like to look at a picture? (no sound)

Cheerio